Wednesday, July 21, 2010

We have an excess of rice paper wrappers hiding in the top of the pantry, so we decided to make spring rolls with them. They were stuffed with the usual suspects (carrot, bean threads, red bell pepper, napa cabbage) and a little diced jalapeno to give it a kick.

Because the rice paper is so delicate after soaking and can tear easily, we chilled them in the fridge for 30 minutes after stuffing them. This firms them back up and makes them easier to handle.

Normally at this point, if you were making the regular sporing rolls with the firmer wrapper, you would deep-fry them. Let's just say from past experience that isn't the best idea and leave it at that. ;)

We cooked them (seam side down to start) in a hot wok with a thin layer of canola oil until crispy on all sides. Be careful turning them over, as they can still rip pretty easily. To plate, the rolls were sliced on the bias and topped with thai basil.

The sauce was half a can of coconut milk, as much red curry paste as you like, a splash of lime and tamari. I realize that's not an exact recipe, but it's the kind of thing you don't measure, you keep tasting until you like it...

Last week's seitan adventure was a trial run for tonight's meal, as we hosted our friends Laura and John for a seitan making workshop. We again made cutlets (which we grilled) and well as a batch of smoked chorizo-style sausages (not shown, but they look exactly like these).

We used our usual seitan making technique -- pounding out the cutlets with a meat mallet until very thin, then boil them in water for 15 minutes, then pressure cook in broth for 15 minutes. They were brushed with olive oil and tamari and grilled about 3-4 minutes per turn for nice grill marks.

(...and yes, we're still working on the seitan video we shot last week. It might take a bit longer than I was expecting.)

It was easily the nicest weather day we've had in weeks -- very low humidity and a pleasant breeze. We started out the evening with a quick appetizer of grilled fig and blue sheese crostini drizzled with some rice syrup while sitting out on the deck with a glass of champagne.

We finished the meal with a pound cake topped with Soyatoo whipped cream and blueberries and homemade cherry ice cream (that Liz whipped up while we waiting for the seitan to finish) on the side.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Occasionally, we like looking through the stacks in our library for something different to make. The recipe for Lettuce and Tofu Soup caught my eye, at first because it almost seemed like a cliche of the type of dish that omnivore's think vegans eat. Then, when I read the whole thing, it seemed like damn good idea for dinner. ;)

The soup is very much like a stir-fry (tofu, carrots, scallions) with a fortified broth (shiitake mushroom broth, sherry, sugar, tamari) with the addition of shredded romaine lettuce added near the end of cooking, which retains a decent amount of textural crunch.

We added our own touch to the soup with the addition of (seared and steamed) gyoza/pot stickers filled with shiitake mushrooms, shallots and shredded napa cabbage.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

We had some leftover seitan from yesterday's batch, so we shredded and sauteed it, then whipped up some of our bourbon-based barbecue sauce. Served along with grilled corn, potato salad and coleslaw. So good.

Everybody has there way of grilling corn -- we like to submerge ours in water for at least 15 minutes, and then put it on the hot grill and turn them once the husks begin to blacken. It takes about four turns to ensure even cooking.

We realized the other day that we hadn't made our own seitan in almost two years. So, we decided to make a couple of batches for the holiday weekend using our method as before.

(We also taped the seitan making process, and if the footage is usable, we'll post the video. It may take a while...)

Here's the results of the first batch, marinated with a tamari and olive oil mixture and then grilled served with the sauteed beet and radish greens as the base, topped with shiitake mushrooms and a red wine sauce, with green beans on the side.

For starters Liz made a delightful mixed greens salad with edible flowers, pretty AND tasty ;)

3. Links to recipes are shown when available, if there's no link, we'll try to cite the book/magazine issue from where it came. If there's no recipe cited, it usually means we made it up... and if there's nothing at all, enjoy the pretty pictures. ;)

4. We don't like ersatz food (i.e. tofu molded into the shape of a turkey for Thanksgiving), but we're funny that way.

5. A brief personal history. We were vegetarian for 7 years, and have been vegan for the last 20 years.